cannabisnews.com: Editorial: No on Question 2





Editorial: No on Question 2
Posted by FoM on October 23, 1999 at 20:02:28 PT
Source: Bangor Daily News
Do you want to allow patients with specific illnesses to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for treatment, as long as such use is approved by a doctor?
The arguments in favor of medical use of marijuana are well laid out in a 1997 New England Journal of Medicine editorial included in the information packets provided by Mainers for Medical Rights, the group that initiated this referendum: The advanced stages of many illnesses and their treatments are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, pain and loss of appetite; thousands of cancer and AIDS patients have found striking relief from these symptoms by smoking marijuana; many of these patients and their families have risked jail to obtain the drug.The title of the editorial is ‘‘Federal Foolishness and Marijuana.’’ If the problem is federal foolishness — stubborn, even paranoid, drug policies — the solution is not Question 2.In attempting to skirt the federal prohibition on physician-prescribed marijuana, the law that would take effect with the passage of this referendum question will allow these patients and designated caregivers to possess up to 1.25 ounces of marijuana. This marijuana can be obtained only two ways — by dealing with illegal drug traffickers or by growing it. The first unwisely legitimizes criminal activity, the second is far more difficult than the acquisition of medicine should ever be. Both methods, and the ‘‘designated caregiver’’ provision, will create confusion and inequity in law enforcement.Further, this approach to making a drug, any drug, available for medicinal use sets a terrible precedent. Drugs are approved for the marketplace through a thorough regimen of testing, research and review, not by popular vote. Although ‘‘slippery slope’’ arguments can be tiresome and often mere obstructionism, in this case the argument, raised by many in the medical community, is valid. It is not hard to imagine the manufacturers of dubious cancer cures and harmful weight-loss potions evading scientific assessment and the FDA approval process merely by getting their product on the ballot.The active compounds in marijuana are available in pill form. Many who use Marinol say it is slow to take effect and sometimes only increases nausea. It is important that alternate delivery methods, such as inhalers, be developed. It is also important, though, that any pharmaceutical be delivered in measured doses and that sufficient steps are taken to prevent illicit use. Marijuana bought on the street or grown on a window sill provides neither of those protections.Mainers for Medical Rights have conducted an informative campaign and have performed a valuable public service in bringing this issue of the therapeutic use of marijuana by the terminally ill to the forefront. Other such groups in other states are doing the same. The remedy for federal foolishness, however, will be found in Congress, not on a state ballot. Saturday October 23, 1999Related Articles:Mainers For Medical Rightshttp://www.mainers.org/Bush: Marijuana Laws Up to States - 10/22/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3373.shtmlSheriff Backs Ballot Question To Legalize Some MJ - 10/21/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3366.shtmlFormer First Lady Barbara Bush Rejects Marijuana - 10/18/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3341.shtmlMarijuana Vote Sparks Little Controversy - 10/16/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3312.shtmlReefer Referendum - 10/08/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3203.shtml 
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Comment #2 posted by observer on October 24, 1999 at 06:39:26 PT
'just happened' not to mention PRISON, again ...
Notice how this editorial writer treats the subject as some abstraction ... not a word about imprisoning adults, not a word about the incarceration of medical marijuan users! I think I know why. It is because once people have made explicit to them that fact that people are now going to prison for simply using a plant that all Americans were free to use until 1937, that changes everything. In the editor's misplaced zeal to insure that "marijuana bought on the street or grown on a window sill" somhow provides "protection" against "illicit use", the editor is willing to jail seriously ill people. No thanks: I'll choose freedom over such strained and bogus rationale any day. (Such a "free press" is little more than a fig leaf for a police stace.)
Propaganda & The War On Drugs
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on October 23, 1999 at 20:28:10 PT
Stone walls...and democracy
Obviously this guy isn't paying attention, just skimming over a very deep subject that deserves some scrutiny.First off, the Federal goverment is two-faced; from one side of its' mouth it agrees that there is some merit in performing studies on the medical efficay of MMJ, due to the enormous amount of anecdotal evidence that it works.But from the other side, it says that MMJ has no merit whatsoever. And those from this particular camp have done everything possible to stonewall any scientific studies *not under its control*. Just ask Dr. Donald Abrams how hard it has been to get medicinal pot from the NIDA for a study; he has had to go through hoops that no pharmaceutical company ever has.Wait for the Federal government to change policies? People are *suffering and dying* right now. This is one of those cases where, in a democracy when the people lead, the leaders follow. In this case, kicking and screaming. But if enough States enact their own laws on the matter, just as with alcohol Prohibition, the Feds will have to go along. They might be able to trouble a few States, but a majority? They might be dense, but not that dense. 
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